Current Literature
PAUL etZANNE By Gerstle Mack
At last someone has taken the trouble to collect all the known facts about Cezanne's life and put them together into a .single biography. Mr. Mack has apparently done his work thoroughly and his biography (Cape, 25s.) is likely to remain standard for a long time. The book is based on a comparison of all the well-known biographies by Gasquet, Vollard and others, but it is supplemented by much material either entirely unpublished or only available scattered through different periodicals. Mr. Mack has discovered a great many unknown letters, partly in the possessioa of Cezanne's friends and partly in what the blurb on the wrapper calls the Bibliotlaque Naturale. To this he has added the results of conversations with many who knew Cezanne or, had information about him by oral tradition: The 'result is much new light' op' obscure passages in the painter's life, particularly on his relations with Zola, -)N'ho appears a much more agreeable character here than in Vollard."s brilliant caricature. The breach between the two men is fully. discussed and it is -shown that the piiblication of .1:Oeuvre had less to do with it than is generally imagined: The most Moving ChaPter is that. &Voted to the enchanting - Pere Tanguy,' the most sympathetic of all the Impressionists'. benefactors. Mr. Mack's book is therefore.'Valuable, but like all standard biographies it lies a little heavy on the stomach. ' The detail sometimes. drowns the outlines, especially in .the earlier part and in the end the reader is left iinpreised but not absOhitely clear. The analyses, of Cezanne'S style'are unpre- tentions and sensible rather than epOeh-making. The plates EireL'-' God be praiSed---in half-tone,' but are a little exaggerated in their contrast of black and white.
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